The present invention relates to an improved substrate for use in the fabrication of an offset printing blanket.
In order to have a satisfactory offset printing blanket so that accurate printing can be achieved, it is necessary that the blanket which carries the material for printing be strong, compressible, low in stretch and have constant thickness and smoothness. Absent these properties, the copy material as it proceeds through the printing operation is non-uniformly subjected to the printing process, causing a less than satisfactory product to result.
Present efforts to produce a quality offset printing blanket include forming a laminated blanket substrate by alternating several layers of fabric and rubber. Such a procedure is expensive, and substrates of this type can permanently set and wrinkle when several pieces of copy paper simultaneously pass through the printing press.
The present invention provides a substrate of uniform thickness having the desired strength, stretch and compressibility characteristics necessary for accurate offset printing. Such a substrate can be produced in a much simpler manner than multiple layer laminations of the type just described.